Whiteladies Road to close northbound for flood prevention works
Construction work, to prevent flooding and improve walking and cycling routes on a stretch of Whiteladies Road between its junctions with Tyndalls Park Road/St Pauls Road and Queens Road, will start on Monday 14 July 2025.
This lower part of Whiteladies Road is prone to localised flooding and the pavement along the eastern side is narrow and uneven, because of the trees and their roots.
The work includes:
- adding a separated cycleway, with a black tarmac surface, on both sides of the road at the same height as the pavements
- adding ‘beany block kerbs’ that combine the roadside kerbs with a built-in drainage system
- resurfacing the road
- raising the driveways of six private properties using like-for-like materials
- repaving the pavements and increasing their height, to reduce the impact of the tree roots
- adding rubber crumb around the trees
Access to properties on Whiteladies Road will be maintained and the council’s contractor, ETM, will be contacting the owners of the six properties to book in the driveway resurfacing works.
To enable the work to take place, from 14 July Whiteladies Road will close one-way travelling northbound from Victoria Methodist Church to its junction with Tyndalls Park Road and St Pauls Road. It will remain closed throughout the project.
The diversion will be via Queens Road, St Pauls Road and left onto Whiteladies Road. Access to properties will be maintained throughout. The diversion to access properties on the western side of Whiteladies Road will be via Queens Road, Pembroke Road, Oakfield Road, and right onto Whiteladies Road.
There will also need to be overnight road closures towards the end of the project for resurfacing works.
The council updated its plans for the Whiteladies Road project following a public consultation in 2022, as many people did not support the proposal to remove the painted cycle lanes on both sides of the road. This was originally suggested to allow space to widen the pavements and add drainage channels and grass verges to them.
Having gone back to the drawing board, the council has negotiated with the owners of six properties on the eastern side of the road, who have agreed that work can take place to increase the height of their driveways. This will make them more level with the pavement, so excess water flows into the new drainage system.
I am really pleased we’ve been able to rethink the plans in response to public feedback, and I am grateful to the owners of the six properties on Whiteladies Road for allowing us access to their driveways. Ultimately, these works will stop water pooling and make it easier to walk, wheel and cycle without losing any of the mature trees that line the street.
Councillor Ed Plowden, Chair of the Transport and Connectivity Committee
It’s also great news that we’ve not only been able to keep the cycling routes, but we’ll be improving them. The aim of these separated cycleways is to link them up to the new routes, that are planned as part of our number 2 bus route proposals, which include cycleways on Queens Road and beyond.
The work is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.
Costing around £800,000, the project will be funded through the highways maintenance block allocation from the UK government’s City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement secured by West of England Mayoral Combined Authority.
